The airship flew through the clear sky. Violet looked out at the fluffy white clouds passing by. She could reach out and touch them. It was incredibly peaceful.
Suddenly, the Eastern Air Temple appeared in the distance. Violet frowned. Why had they come back here?
She turned to ask Barley about it, but he wasn't there. She looked around. All of her friends had disappeared. It was only her on the airship, which suddenly seemed much smaller and more constricting. Where had everyone else gone?
As the airship neared the temple, she could see a plume of smoke curling up from the courtyard. Somehow, she'd gone back to the moment of the attack. Maybe this time she could stop it.
The airship began its descent, and she could see into the courtyard. A raging fire tore through the space, devouring everything in its path. The heat and smoke were suffocating.
There was only one person standing in the courtyard. Dash. He was staring up at her, silently begging her to help him. She lunged forward to leap out and grab him, but she couldn't move. She tried to cry out, but she couldn't speak, either.
She could only stand there and watch as the flames consumed him. He opened his mouth in a scream of agony, no sound coming out. His skin turned bright red, then black as it melted.
Violet screamed and woke up. She was lying on her back, gasping for air. She felt paralyzed.
It took her a moment to remember where she was. They were flying to the North Pole. They'd left Moonwind's house earlier that day.
The others were looking at her in concern. Luca and Alberto were rubbing their eyes sleepily. She must have woken them.
"Violet?" Ian said.
"I…I'm fine," she stammered. "Sorry. Just a…bad dream."
She looked out to take her mind off the nightmare. It looked like they were flying over a large greenish-brown swamp, although it was hard to see through the fog. Even from up here, the stench was overwhelming.
"This is the Spirit Swamp!" Barley said. "It's alive with spirits, both good and bad. It gives people visions, trying to lure them. So don't believe anything you see."
The others nodded.
Up ahead, the trees and vines began shaking violently. A giant tornado emerged, heading right for them.
Ian looked at Violet. "Are you doing that?!"
"No! Why would I be?"
"Barley, get us out of here!" Ian yelled.
"Maybe it's just a vision," Alberto said.
"Yeah," Luca said hopefully.
"I don't think so," Barley said as the airship began to swerve erratically in the wind. He couldn't control it against the strong gusts.
Then the tornado was upon them. The airship was flung around in circles. It was incredibly disorienting. The whole time, the wind screamed around them, hurting their ears.
Violet screamed as she was yanked from the airship. She could see Luca and Alberto flying away as well, in different directions. Then she smacked into a tree and fell to the ground.
The ground beneath her was soft and spongy. She sat up and looked around. The thick fog surrounded her, seeming to cling to her hair, her clothes, her skin.
A startled voice came from behind her. "Vi?"
She turned. Her breath flew from her lungs, as if she'd been punched.
Her family was standing in front of her. Bob and Helen, their arms around each other. Dash, holding Jack-Jack, who was still a baby. They were all just the same as she remembered. And they were all staring at her. The disappointment in their eyes was palpable.
"You didn't protect your brother," Helen said, putting her hand on Dash's shoulder.
Violet lowered her head. "I'm sorry, Mom, I–"
"You let me die!" Dash interrupted. His voice cracked. "You only thought about yourself!"
She reached for him in distress. "Dash…"
He shrank away from her, into their parents' arms. They continued to stare at her, their faces harsh and unforgiving.
Tears blurred her vision. When she blinked them away, her family was gone.
It was all a hallucination. A cruel trick of the swamp. She knew that. But everything her family had said was true. She wanted to just sink into the swamp, to let the spirits take her to the eternal punishment she deserved.
But she couldn't. Not yet. Not until she saved Jack-Jack. She at least owed him that.
~~~~
Barley struggled to escape the thick vines that had broken his fall. He only succeeded in getting himself more tangled up. They were wrapped around all of his limbs, his waist, even his neck. If they were any tighter, they would strangle him.
Finally, he managed to break free. He fell face-down into the murky swamp. He shook himself off the best he could and went to search for Ian.
To his relief, it didn't take long. Ian had landed in the swamp, too, only a short distance away. He was stuck in the mire, up to his waist.
Barley pulled Ian out. "Are you okay?"
"I think so," Ian said.
"We have to find the others and the airship and get out of here, before this place starts messing with us," Barley said.
Ian gasped and pointed at something behind Barley. "Barley, look!"
Barley looked. A woman was standing on a tree stump. Their mother Laurel. The moonlit fog behind her made her look ethereal.
"Mom," Ian said.
"Ian, it's not real," Barley said. Although part of him wondered if maybe Laurel had been hiding out here since her disappearance. It wasn't impossible.
Laurel turned and ran away.
"Mom!" Ian shouted. "Where are you going?"
"Ian, wait!"
Ian didn't even hear him. He ran after their mother. Maybe this was what Moonwind had meant. Maybe they'd finally found her.
Frustration and fear bubbled up in his chest as he chased her through the trees. Why was she running? Didn't she want to be reunited with her sons?
He reached out and grabbed her hand. At his touch, she vanished.
She wasn't real. He started trembling as panic overwhelmed him. He wasn't sure exactly why. He crouched down on the ground, on the verge of tears. He took a few shaky breaths, but it didn't help.
"Ian?" Barley called, running over. "Ian!"
"It wasn't her."
Barley looked at Ian sadly. "Ian…it's okay. We'll find her." He sat down next to Ian and held him. Ian leaned into his brother and sobbed.
~~~~
"Luca? Where are you?" Alberto yelled as he trudged through the forest.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he got the feeling someone was watching him. He turned. The vines almost seemed to be reaching toward him.
"It's just the wind," he muttered to himself.
He saw a figure up ahead. "Luca?" He ran toward it, then stopped.
It was a grown man, with broad shoulders and a mop of curly brown hair. His green eyes were a few shades darker than Alberto's. His face wore a stressed expression Alberto knew all too well.
"Dad?" Alberto's voice came out meekly. "You're back." He wondered what his father thought of him now, three years later. "I've grown a lot, huh? Soon I'll be as tall as you."
His father didn't reply.
"I…I missed you," Alberto said. "Are…are you coming home now?"
His father turned and walked away.
"Dad!" Alberto ran toward him. "Dad, wait!"
His father kept walking. The fog rolled like waves, and he vanished into the sea.
Alberto stopped. He closed his eyes. Don't cry. Don't cry.
His father would come back. He had to.
Alberto walked away. He had to find Luca. Until his father came home, they'd face the world like they always did: together.
~~~~
Luca looked around. "Alberto? Where are you?" He knew he should be walking around and searching for his friend, but he felt frozen with fear. He was alone in a haunted swamp. He didn't know what to do.
"Hey! Are you a waterbender?"
He looked up. A red-haired girl was standing in front of him.
"Me?" Luca asked, looking around. As if there was anyone else here she could have been talking to.
She just smiled at him silently.
"Who are you?" Luca asked.
She didn't reply. He looked at her, trying to figure out where she was from. She was wearing a blue outfit with fur, but it didn't look like she was from the Southern Water Tribe. Maybe she was from the North Pole.
She ran off. Luca didn't try to follow her. He just stood there, confused.
The trees rustled as a person or animal ran through. Luca looked up nervously. Someone slammed into him. Luca grunted as he rolled down the hill.
He looked up. Alberto was lying on the ground, rubbing his head and wincing.
"Alberto!" Luca cried.
"Luca!" Alberto ran to him. "Let's go find the others."
"So, uh, did you see any weird visions?" Luca asked as they walked around.
Alberto looked away.
"Alberto?"
"Um, yeah," Alberto said, rubbing the back of his neck. "My…my dad."
Luca wasn't sure why he was so reluctant to admit it. "It's okay to miss him. I'm sure he'll be back."
"I don't want to talk about it," Alberto said. After a pause, he asked, "Did you see anything?"
"A girl. I've never seen her before."
"Was she hot?" Alberto asked.
"Alberto!" Luca cried, appalled.
"What?" Alberto said. "I'm just trying to figure out if she was, like, a succubus or something, trying to lure you with her girly charm."
Luca shook his head. Sometimes Alberto was unbelievable.
They spotted Ian and Barley up ahead. Then Violet walked over. Her eyes looked haunted.
"Are you okay?" Alberto asked.
"What happened?" Barley asked.
"I saw my family," Violet said. "My parents…my brothers…"
"We saw our mother," Ian said quietly.
Luca frowned. He was the only one who had seen someone he didn't know. Who was she? Why had she appeared to him? Was he going to meet her in the future?
"Let's find the airship and get out of here," Barley said, looking around.
They walked around. Alberto still couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched.
They finally found the airship sitting in a large banyan tree, suspended in some vines. As they approached it, the vines seemed to tighten around it. Alberto felt like he could sense the water inside the vines moving around. Was someone bending them?
One of the vines reached out and wrapped around his arm. He yelped as it yanked him into the air.
"Alberto!" Luca shouted, then cried out as a vine tightened around his waist.
All five of them were tied up in the vines. They struggled but couldn't free themselves.
A group of people emerged from behind the tree. Their leader, a man with grey hair and an impressive mustache, eyed Violet and her friends. "What do we have here?"
"What should we do to 'em, Doc?" a young woman asked.
Doc looked at the airship. "Is this your airship?"
"Yeah," Barley said. "We just want to get back to it and leave."
"It damaged our sacred tree," Doc said, showing them a long scar down the tree's trunk.
"Sorry about that," Ian said. "It was an accident."
Alberto strained against the vines. "If you hadn't sent that tornado at us, it wouldn't have happened! We didn't even want to be here."
"We didn't do anything," the woman protested.
"The swamp called you here," Doc said.
"Why?" Violet asked.
"The spirits work in mysterious ways," Doc said.
"So in other words, you don't know," Ian said.
There was a long silence.
"So can we go now?" Alberto asked.
"No," Doc said. "We need to hold a trial, to decide what your punishment will be."
"Punishment?" Barley said.
Doc pointed at the tree. "The spirits won't be happy if we let you get away." He picked up a stick and banged on the tree. "Court is now in session!"
The others began shouting out suggestions for their punishment.
"Lock them up!"
"Hang 'em!"
"Boil them in oil!"
"Let the spirits take them to the spirit world. They'll decide what to do with them there."
Luca piped up, his voice shaking. "Please, we really didn't mean to. And the tree seems fine. So can you just let us go with a slap on the wrist?"
Doc shook his head. "I think you should stay in this swamp, in these vines, until the tree heals. Which should take…about eighty years, if the spirits are unusually quick."
"We can't stay here," Ian protested. "We have to get to the North Pole."
"We're on an important quest to save the Avatar," Barley added.
"Shame," Doc said. "I guess someone else will have to save him instead."
The swamp benders walked away. Violet couldn't believe they'd been left here, basically to die.
"Luca, Alberto, can you bend the vines?" Barley asked.
Luca shook his head. "I don't think so." They could barely bend a small wave. How would they control vines?
"I can feel the water in them," Alberto said. "But I can't make it move."
"Ian? Can you earthbend?" Barley asked.
"I guess I could try." Ian strained against the vines, trying to get at least one of his feet on the ground. He finally managed to touch the forest floor, just barely. He focused and did his best to take up an earthbending stance.
The ground shook, a slow rumble at first. Then it slowly got stronger, finally shaking the vines loose. They all dropped to the ground.
Barley and Alberto climbed the tree. Together, they managed to push the airship down. Ian winced at the loud clatter it made as it fell.
They got into the airship. Then they heard a shout.
"Hey!" The swamp benders came running over.
Ian shook Barley's shoulder. "Hurry!"
The airship slowly lifted off the ground. The vines reached out and grabbed it.
Barley turned up the gas. The airship crept forward, fighting against the strength of the vines. Alberto grabbed a piece of metal lying on the ground and sliced through the vines. The airship broke free and flew away.
The swamp benders stared as the airship disappeared into the distance. "What do we do, Doc?"
"Let them go," Doc said. "The spirits will deal with them." He looked up at the tree. "The spirits may let them go for a bit, but they won't forget. Eventually, those miscreants' actions will catch up to them."
~~~~
Fire. Orange. Red. Black. Coming closer. Dash could hear the crackling of the flames. It was going to burn him. Again.
No. No. Nononono…
Dash sat up, screaming. The metal bed creaked beneath him. He groaned as he remembered where he was.
He hated this ship. He hated this journey. He knew Syndrome was just counting down the minutes until he could burn Dash again.
He wanted Mirage. He tried to imagine she was next to him, singing him back to sleep. He could almost feel her fingers in his hair.
"You may never be mine
But you're always on my mind
I love you, I'll love you for all time
So fly across the sky
Find where you belong tonight
And maybe I'll see you shining bright"